Chapter 3 - The Camera That Went Dark
Caleb read the message twice.
"You're staying here tonight."
Elise almost laughed.
"No."
"That wasn't a request."
"Then the answer is definitely no."
"Someone photographed your apartment."
"Which is exactly why I'm going there."
"Why?"
"Because it's my home."
Caleb looked incredulous.
"You'd rather sleep in an apartment someone is watching?"
"I'd rather choose where I sleep."
The distinction silenced him.
Jonah watched them.
Finally Caleb said, "Fine. Then security goes with you."
"No."
"Elise."
"I don't know who to trust."
Jonah winced slightly.
Caleb didn't.
"Smart."
She hadn't expected that.
Caleb arranged for a car—not one of his usual vehicles—and Elise reluctantly accepted a security escort she selected herself: Martha.
Martha was sixty-two, five-foot-three, and carried no weapon.
Caleb objected.
Elise didn't care.
They reached her apartment shortly after seven.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Then Elise saw the envelope beneath her door.
No stamp.
No name.
Inside was a photograph.
Caleb.
Years younger.
Standing beside another man.
The second man's face had been scratched away.
On the back:
ASK HIM ABOUT THE EAST WING.
Martha whispered, "What east wing?"
Elise looked at her.
"You work there."
"There isn't one."
Back at Rowan House, Caleb saw the photograph and became very still.
"There was."
Elise sat opposite him in the library.
"What happened?"
"Fire."
"When?"
"Eight years ago."
"Who was the man?"
Caleb stared at the scratched face.
"My brother."
Elise hadn't known he had one.
"Name?"
"Adrian."
"What happened to him?"
Caleb looked toward the dark window.
"He died."
The word landed heavily.
Caleb explained only what he had to.
Adrian Rowan had been older by four years.
Brilliant.
Unstable in business.
The brothers had fought over the direction of the family company.
Then came the fire.
Adrian died.
Caleb survived.
But the injuries from that night changed his mobility permanently.
Elise looked at his wheelchair.
Suddenly the attempt to interfere with it felt even more deliberate.
"Someone wants you thinking about the fire."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"That's a lie."
Caleb looked at her.
She didn't back down.
"You know something."
"I know Adrian and I argued that night."
"About?"
"A financial transfer."
"Illegal?"
"No. Suspicious."
Caleb opened a drawer.
He removed an old file.
Adrian had discovered money moving through a shell vendor connected to Rowan Holdings.
Before he could determine who controlled it, the east wing burned.
The investigation attributed the fire to an electrical fault.
The missing money was never fully explained.
Elise slowly understood.
"You thought Adrian took it."
"For years."
"And now?"
Caleb looked at the photograph.
"Now somebody is asking me to reconsider."
Jonah entered carrying a laptop.
"I recovered more footage."
They watched the camera outside the service corridor.
11:24.
Normal.
11:25.
Normal.
11:26.
The picture froze.
But Jonah had recovered a fragment from a secondary storage cache.
A person crossed the far end of the hallway.
Not the woman dressed as Elise.
A man.
Only his shoulder appeared.
Then his hand.
On his finger was a ring.
Caleb leaned closer.
Elise noticed his expression.
"You recognize it."
Caleb said nothing.
Jonah enlarged the image.
A silver crest.
An R divided by a diagonal line.
Rowan family insignia.
Only three rings had ever been made.
Caleb owned one.
Adrian had owned another.
Their father had worn the third until his death.
"Where is Adrian's ring?" Elise asked.
Caleb stared at the screen.
"Buried with him."
Nobody spoke.
Jonah whispered:
"Then somebody opened his grave."
Caleb shook his head.
"Or he wasn't wearing it when he was buried."
They checked the funeral inventory.
No ring was listed.
Caleb remembered seeing it on Adrian shortly before the fire.
Afterward?
He couldn't remember.
Elise studied the photograph again.
"Who identified your brother?"
Caleb's face changed.
"My father."
"Did you?"
"No."
"Jonah?"
"No."
"Martha?"
"No."
The room seemed suddenly colder.
Elise didn't suggest Adrian might be alive.
That conclusion was too large.
Too easy.
Instead she asked:
"Who benefited from everyone believing he was dead?"
Caleb looked at her for a long time.
Then he opened another file.
Adrian's shares had transferred into a family trust.
The trustee had been Caleb's father.
After his death, control moved to Caleb.
But one additional signature appeared throughout the paperwork.
A lawyer.
Samuel Voss.
Caleb's family attorney.
The man scheduled to meet Caleb that morning.
The meeting Elise had stopped.
Caleb looked at Jonah.
"Where is Voss?"
Jonah called.
No answer.
His office said he had left for Rowan House at ten-thirty.
He never arrived.
Elise checked the time.
Nearly ten at night.
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number again.
This time there was no photograph.
Just an audio file.
Caleb played it.
Static.
Breathing.
Then a man's voice.
"Caleb."
Caleb went rigid.
The voice continued.
"You trusted the wrong person after the fire."
Elise watched his face lose color.
"You recognize him?"
Caleb whispered one word.
"Adrian."
The recording continued.
"If Elise found the wheel, she can find the rest."
Elise's blood ran cold.
The message had used her name.
Then came six final words.
"Ask Jonah what happened at midnight."
Jonah stared at Caleb.
Caleb stared back.
May you like
Neither man spoke.
And somewhere behind them, the library door quietly locked.
